I received an email from Al on Easter Sunday. I was up at my sister’s house in La Crosse, so I wasn’t able to call Al back right away. I did exchange some emails back and forth to ensure that this wasn’t a recent loss, as timing is so important when attempting to find a lost ring. The quicker you can get our on site, the higher likelihood you have of finding your lost ring.

The next day Al and I finally connected via phone. Al explained that the ring was a men’s gold ring, with a black onyx center stone with diamonds along the side. He had received the ring as recognition for 25 years of service from a local insurance company. Al explained that he was out mowing his lawn on his riding mower. Behind Al’s lot is a common greenway, which he frequently mows and maintains – almost like part of his own yard. He approached a set of trees which hadn’t been trimmed recently – so the branches hung down low. In order to mow around the tree, Al had to raise up the branches with his hand as he passed under the tree on his mower. While doing this, one of the small braches hooked around his ring and when he let go of the branch, the ring was ripped from his finger and flung off into the grass. He stopped his mower, got off and got a leaf rake. He raked the entire area, hoping to stir up the ring. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to find anything.

A year passed, and Al always wondered if his ring was still out there. One day, he was reading the Sunday paper and came across a story by Doug Moe, a local reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal. The story was about our Ring Finding activities (http://host.madison.com/news/local/columnists/doug-moe/doug-moe-the-man-who-finds-lost-rings/article_3ef64cca-adf5-5735-8399-4f6e440631e0.html). Al read the story and wondered if I would be able to find his ring he lost the previous year. Al had always thought about renting a metal detector, but was worried he wouldn’t know how to work it. Al did the right thing by calling us. I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard of people renting a metal detector – only to become completely frustrated after only a couple of mins.

I told Al I would need to check with my wife to see what our plans were, and we tentatively planned to get together over the weekend. After hearing Al’s story, I knew that I would be able to find his ring. If you know the exact area and moment you lost your ring – someone with a metal detector will find it, almost 100% of the time (unless someone else finds it first J).

After hanging up the phone with Al, I talked with my wife and the weekend was free. Only problem was it looked like rain for the next 7 days. If you read my other stories, you’ll know that I metal detector with my two kids. I told them the story about Al’s ring, and they started to get excited. You see, we had been on 3 previous hunts where we did not find the ring we were looking for. We are scheduled to go back on all three, as they were all lost between 1 and 8 years ago, and we haven’t given up yet. Al’s ring sounded to me like a slam dunk. Unfortunately, it was Monday night and the UW Badgers were playing for the National Championship against Duke – first time since 1941. We have season tickets and love Badger Basketball. Tipoff was a little after 8:00 … it was 5:45. I looked at the kids and said, “Maybe we just go out and take a look at the site and see what we find?” They were totally on board, and we were all excited to break our dry streak. We jumped in the van.

Al only lived about 15 mins away, however, as we pulled into his driveway it started to rain. Argh. We decided to give it a shot anyways, and headed to the backyard. Al explained how he lost again, and we started to search the area. We got some hits right away, but all turned out to be junk. You’d be surprised how much junk is buried in your backyard. I always tell people not to get discouraged when we don’t find their ring right away, and we assured Al that we’d keep looking until we found it. I widened the search area around the tree, not knowing how far that branch might have flung the ring. After about 20 mins, my daughter says to me, “That tree over there looks a lot like this tree.” I’m not sure if Al heard her or not, but a min later he said, “Maybe it was closer to that tree.” Sure enough, after moving over … the very first hit we got was Al’s ring – about an inch below the grass.

Al was relieved to have the ring back on his finger, his wife also was surprised we were able to find it … and even in the rain! We quickly returned home to watch Bucky play a heck of a game, but came up short in the end.

Thanks for the reward Al and so glad we were able to get that ring back on your finger.

Mandy and I were looking forward to a long weekend to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary. After enjoying a night at Madison’s Concert on the Square, a round of golf another day and exploring some of Wisconsin’s hidden gems we decided to meet family at Devil’s Lake State Park for a pleasant Saturday afternoon.

The sun was shining and Max (our beagle) was by our side. After a full day of activities, including Wollersheim Wine, New Glarus Beer and of course cheese curds in hand, we decided to hop in the lake. Although the water was chilly, the volleyball was flying and we were having a great time. Not even five minutes in the water, the weekend became ever so memorable. I turned to Mandy and calmly told her my wedding ring had just flung off my finger. She thought it was a joke until she glanced down at my hand.

I was able to see exactly where my ring hit the glossy water but the vision didn’t last long as it disappeared into the cloudy lake water. Everyone froze … not a movement was made. A friendly family on the beach offered their snorkeling gear to us to aid in the search. I stayed put while Mandy and family member Cody swam in circles, periodically coming up for air while trying not to stir up the mucky sand on the lake floor.

We thought it would be easy to spot a shiny ring sitting atop the muck but we were sorely mistaken. After the remaining afternoon and the entire evening (over 5 hours in total) was spent searching, daylight was gone and we called it quits. Needless to say the ride home was quiet.

We threw around ideas: “Should we go back and search the next day?”, “Do we call the jewelers right away?”, “Call the insurance company?”. Late Sunday night as we were getting ready for the week ahead it dawned on us, maybe there are such people as treasure hunters? It was worth a Google search at least.

Sure enough, the first website that popped up was www.TheRingFinders.com. We entered Wisconsin Dells as the location and a man by the name of Dan Roekle was revealed. I got on the phone right away and explained exactly what happened. His response, “We’ll find it, guarantee it.” While we knew nothing is ever 100%, his statement was enough to bring a huge smile to Mandy’s face.

The very next day, Dan and I coordinated our schedules and decided to meet at Devil’s Lake in the evening. Cody and I headed up to the State Park and after securing the proper paperwork from the Park Warden to use a metal detector in the park, we headed to the infamous spot where my ring was lost. Dan often takes his two children with him on treasure hunts, teaching them patience while having fun at the same time. I stayed back as to not stir up the sand. After only five minutes, Dan came back with his son by his side and sadly told us the conditions just weren’t ideal that evening to search for the ring.

My heart sank.

Mandy was going to be so disappointed? The ring itself wasn’t important but the sentiment and memories behind it were invaluable.

Not even 10 seconds later with a huge smile on his face, Dan’s son pulled his hand out of the water and revealed my ring!!! I couldn’t believe it. After spending our entire Saturday afternoon in the water, it took them only five minutes to locate and dig up my ring, which had sunk about 3 inches below the mucky sand. I got Mandy on the phone and tried to tell her the conditions just weren’t right. Of course, she could tell by the tone of my voice that wasn’t the case. When I told her, she was overjoyed and couldn’t believe how quick the ring was retrieved! The ring is now safely back on my finger and after four years I finally got it re-sized as to avoid anything like this in the future.

Thank you Dan and family for your enthusiasm and confidence. Although it’s just a ring, it means a lot to us and we are incredibly grateful for your assistance. One thing is for certain, we will probably never forget our four year wedding anniversary!